Review: Halloween Ends


On Halloween a few years ago, young Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) babysits a young child and it turns tragic when Corey is locked in a room and the kid subsequently takes a terminal fall. Corey is later found with a bloody knife. The entire town of Haddonfield seems to think he’s guilty but a court acquits him. Cut to the present day and Corey has stuck up a relationship with Allyson (Andi Matichak) the granddaughter of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Allyson isn’t aware of the fact that Corey’s recently become acquainted with Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) who spares the young man’s life. Will Patton and Kyle Richards briefly reprise their roles as Frank and Lindsey, respectively.

 

I should’ve expected this. It’s the third in the modern “Halloween” franchise, so of course this was going to be the “Season of the Witch” entry (even though technically the original “Halloween” is connected so this is technically the fourth film…but I’d rather not think about that). Oh sure, Michael Myers is at least in this one, unlike “Season of the Witch”. But it’s a terrible film and it’s not really about Michael Myers at all.

 

Director David Gordon Green and his fellow screenwriters Danny McBride (the previous two films), Paul Brad Logan (Green’s “Manglehorn”) and Chris Bernier have tried to take things in a different direction here. An admirable thing in theory, but you need to pull it off. And boy do they absolutely not pull this off one bit, right from the dreadful, time-wasting opening set piece. This new trilogy wasn’t all that great to start with and each film has just gotten worse with this one frankly not even being better than “Halloween Resurrection”, and possibly not even “Season of the Witch” or “Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers”. Congrats, your movie is better than Rob Zombie’s “Halloween II” but so is being hit by a bus.

 

The idea spawned from the previous “Halloween Kills” that Michael is a virus running through the town was stupid, quasi-political BS that was one of the things that ruined an already overstuffed film. But this mess proves even worse. I just don’t understand why Green and co didn’t just keep things simple. If they love the first film so much, surely they’d understand why it worked. As with the previous film we get far too many characters to keep track of, with poor Will Patton barely getting a guest role, and Jamie Lee Curtis being misused once again. She was the best thing about the previous two films in spite of not getting enough screen time, but here Laurie Strode seems to have undergone an entire personality transplant as well. She’s completely unrecognisable from any previous “Halloween” film. This isn’t Laurie Strode. Laurie Strode would not be baking a pie for Halloween. And I’m the guy who defended what they did to Luke Skywalker in “The Last Jedi”. Meanwhile, the relationship between Andi Matichak and newcomer Rohan Campbell is poorly written and rushed. There is no way that someone connected to Laurie Strode – even a pie-baking Laurie Strode – would wilfully enter a relationship with a guy who admits to what this guy admits to. No way. Then again this is the same film that has Michael Myers basically teaming up with someone, in which of the previous films has he even hinted at playing well with others? There’s nothing even in the two previous films that suggests this as a possibility, and no the Man in Black/druid BS isn’t a solid counter-argument. The whole thing is so awkward and off-kilter that it feels like none of the screenwriters knew what the other was doing. Who was this made for? I think “Season of the Witch” is even worse, but surely no one could be satisfied with what we get here. I also need to single out Joanne Baron and Candice Rose for giving absolutely abysmal performances in a film that already features Kyle Richards.

 

It took four people to write this borderline bait-and-switch disaster? This new trilogy didn’t get off to an entirely successful start and has ended on a dreadful, off-kilter note. It’s like a weird mixture of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2”, “Halloween III”, John Carpenter’s “Christine”, and “Friday the 13th Part V” and every bit as bad as that mixture sounds. Too many characters, too many odd ideas, none of it works.

 

Rating: D

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more